Grant bankruptcy leaves hole on locavore plates

The closure and pending liquidation Northern Colorado's largest organic farm could mean less locally produced food in restaurants and on foodies' plates.

Jan. 13, 2013

Adrienne Templeton grabs fresh produce from a walk-in cooler while working at Jax Fish House in Old Town Fort Collins on Thursday. Less locally grown, organic foods may be available after the recent bankruptcy of Northern Colorado organic producer Grant Family Farms. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

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Diners and chefs across Northern Colorado are lamenting the loss of the organic Grant Family Farms, which declared bankruptcy last month and may be broken up and sold.

The farm provided produce to restaurants and also to home cooks at farmers markets and through its weekly community supported agriculture shares. The farm’s closure could mean the loss of more than 2,000 acres that produced everything from lettuce and salad greens to onions, cauliflower and kale, all of it organic. It also produced organic eggs and chickens.

“To lose them is huge,” said Kevin Grossi, chef de cuisine at Jax Fish House in Old Town Fort Collins. “To lose any farm up here, it’s never a good situation.”

Grossi first began using Grant produce almost a decade ago when he was working in Denver, and he maintained that connection when he moved to Fort Collins.

Grossi is one of many local chefs who pride themselves on offering menus loaded with locally sourced products. In many ways, Grant’s sheer size helped make that kind of thing possible in the Fort Collins area, said Colorado State University agricultural economy professor Dawn Thilmany McFadden.

Busy restaurant chefs and managers often don’t have much time to scour markets and fields for produce, so Grant’s ability to regularly deliver significant supplies played an important role, McFadden said. She said Grant’s produce, like that of other local farms, allows independent restaurants to stand out from big chain dining establishments.

“I think there’s a lot of uncertainty about what this is going to mean for the availability of fresh produce,” she added. “They were just so much bigger than all of the others. I think it’s going to be OK, but it’s just so sad because you never want a part of your community to die.”

Grossi and McFadden both said Grant played an important role in introducing the CSA model to the community. It’s a model that many small farms in Northern Colorado now use. McFadden said other farmers were encouraged and motivated by Grant’s success, which means the farm’s closure may hurt a little less now than it would have even five years ago.

“Grant definitely has been an anchor producer for a long time, but they’ve been an umbrella that a lot of these smaller to medium producers have grown up under,” she said. “The good news is a lot of other farmers have come online, but nothing near the scale of Grant.”

Who, if anyone, will step in to fill Grant’s role as a major organic producer remains uncertain. But the farm’s closure also leaves a void in the fabric of the farm-to-fork movement. Fort Collins farming blogger Kelsi Nagy said Grant played an important role in educating consumers about the benefits of eating locally produced food. She said the CSA allowed the farm to reach thousands of consumers around Colorado.

“Our food system isn’t always transparent, and Grant was very encouraging about being transparent,” she said. “It’s definitely a loss to our local food community.”